The original Woodstock Festival kicked off on August 15, 1969, exactly 50 years ago today in Bethel, New York. Since then, the festival has been regarded as an iconic moment in music history, as it happened right at the cusp of the larger counterculture generation coming in the 1970s.
Looking at the 1969 Woodstock line-up is like reading a who’s who of rock’n’roll LEGENDS. There will probably never be a lineup that introduced so many icons, and created a cultural shift like Woodstock did, or a place where 400,000 people got together in pretty terrible conditions, simple for their love of music.
Just today, BuzzFeed News published photos showing the really dirty, unpolished realities of the Woodstock fest, but we thought we’d share some of the iconic performances happening on the stage that have lived on in history since then. Check some of them down below:
Richie Havens Opens Up The Festival
Jimi Hendrix’s Performance of The Star Spangled Banner
Santana Playing As Mostly Unknowns Before Their Debut Album Was Released
The Who Doing An Early Sunday Set Ending With ‘My Generation’